With a 4-0 win against
Liverpool under our belts, this meeting at Anfield should hold not
demons, but the team are likely to be shorn of a couple of the
players who started that match back in September. And that
win, although we were 1-0 ahead already, was assisted by some
ill-discipline with Charlie Adam and Martin Skrtel getting sent off.

With Luis Suarez returning
from his lengthy ban for racially abusing Patrick Evra, the
spotlight will be on him and this might take the heat off Tottenham
a bit. With the fuss surrounding Andy Carroll in Suarez's
absence, the team have been doing well, with wins over Manchester
City in the League Cup and United in the FA Cup, but their loss at
Bolton perhaps tells you more about their consistency than those two
cup ties. In fact, at home they have been stuttering, with a
series of drawn matches, which has left them off the top four.

The side are functioning
better now under Dalglish, but 28 goal sin 23 games tells the tale
of their deficiencies. Suarez has scored a few, but he also
has had many more shots off target (just like our own striker
Emmanuel Adebayor) and he ahs also hit the woodwork a lot.
Unlucky or not as accurate as he should be ? We might find out
on Monday.

Carroll might have to sit
this one out, but his height and power will no doubt be introduced
at some stage to try and shake up the Spurs defence.
Liverpool's game has had to incorporate Carroll's assets and he
looked like a player lacking confidence, but goals against Oldham
and Wolves might boost his goal-scoring instinct. Playing up
top with Suarez will likely be Craig Bellamy, who is having a new
lease of life, making and scoring goals, as he look sot have matured
as a player now.

The midfield of Liverpool has
not been weighing in with the usual number of goals that they have
done in the past. This is mainly due to Steven Gerrard's
injury keeping him out for a long period. But now he is
back and will be trying to drive his side on in his typical style,
but alongside him, Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Stewart
Downing are all yet to win over the Anfield fans. They have
done well, but are living up to the legends who wore the shirts
before them and they are not quite stepping up tot hat level yet.
Lucas' knee injury has ruled him out for the season and the Reds are
missing him now despite the criticism he gathered when he was first
at the club.

With Dirk Kuyt too important to
sell in the transfer window, he has provided them with a hard
working presence and Maxi Rodriguez has been a useful player to
bring in when needed, chipping in with valuable goals at Chelsea and
Blackburn.

With Pepe Reina in goal,
Liverpool have one of the soundest stoppers in the league, but he
can be prone to positioning errors and is not the best with his feet.
in front of him, Jamie Carragher is not a regular starter now, with
Skrtel and Agger the preferred pairing in the middle of the back
four, with Enrique and Glen Johnson at full back. Both full
backs like to get forward and might find themselves stranded if
Tottenham break quickly, with their midfield wide men not the most
defensive minded. But they can produce problems when pushing
on and providing supply to the front men, so Spurs will need to
squeeze them infield or keep them pushed as far back as possible.

With Spurs likely to be missing
at least four regular starters, it could be a tough ask to come away
from Anfield for a win for a second season running, but the team
have shown that they are comfortable in possession against the very
top sides and could well frustrate Liverpool and with the pressure
on them to come at Spurs, it might produce a situation where we can
hit them when the opportunity arises.

However, with so many of the
Liverpool home games ending all square, I feel that this might have
the makings of another draw.

LIVERPOOL TEAM
NEWS :
With Luis Suarez returning to the squad after his racist abuse ban
ending, the only injury issue Kenny Dalglish has is the missing
midfielder Lucas, who will be out with knee ligament damage for some
time.

TOTTENHAM
HOTSPUR TEAM NEWS :
Spurs have doubts over Emmanuel Adebayor, Aaron Lennon and Jermain
Defoe (all hamstring strains), but the last two are most doubtful.
Rafael van der Vaart will have a late check on his calf
injury, while Kyle Walker expects to be fit following his
substitution on Tuesday when he pulled his groin. William
Gallas' calf injury rules him out, while David Bentley's knee injury
means he will be sidelined for a while, although Tom Huddlestone is
continuing his come-back from his ankle surgery.

Tottenham kicked off and played
towards the Kop end in the
first half.

Liverpool
:

kit

Tottenham Hotspur
:

kit

25 Reina

34
Kelly 5 Agger37
Skrtel 2
Johnson

18 Kuyt
( 7
Suarez 66 )20
Spearing 8
Gerrard (c)26
Adam

9
Carroll39 Bellamy (19
Downing 73)

Unused subs:
32 Doni
6 Aurelio
16 Coates
28 Carragher
14
Henderson

24
Friedel

28
Walker20
Dawson26
King (c)32
Assou-Ekotto

29
Livermore 8
Parker 14
Modric 3
Bale

21
Kranjcar (25
Rose 87)

10
Adebayor (15
Saha 71)

Unused subs:23
Cudicini33
Nelsen26
Khumalo45
Luongo53
Lancaster

Manager
:
Kenny Dalglish

Manager
:
Harry Redknapp

Sponsor
:
Standard Charter

Shirt sponsor
:Aurasma

Kit Supplier
:
adidas

Kit Supplier
:
Puma

Match report

In an untidy match, which was
threatened by a blanket of fog before kick off, Spurs were
held to a draw by a determined, but mediocre Liverpool side.
Coming into the match without Rafael van der Vaart, Aaron Lennon,
Younes Kaboul and Jermain Defoe, Tottenham started with Jake
Livermore and Niko Kranjcar in midfield and were lacking their usual
flair, width and sharpness of passing.

For the first five minutes
of the game, neither side looked like they wanted to hang onto the
football, turning over possession, with Liverpool's passes being
mi-directed, while Spurs found it hard without an "out" ball from
the back, thus it kept coming back at them. Emmanuel
Adebayor was stranded up front on his own and there was little he
could do to hold the ball up all the time. With Kranjcar
showing occasional glimpses of what he is capable of, but more often
looking like someone who couldn't be that bothered to chase back,
etc, Tottenham were hampered by the physical approach Liverpool took
and the lack of options when on the ball.

Five minutes in, Carroll was
released on the edge of the box with a run on goal, but Michael
Dawson produced a finely times tackle that took the bal and not the
player, otherwise we might have been looking at a penalty and a
sending off had he got the man and not the ball. The players
were hardly setting the game alight, so a new entrant took the
limelight, when a cat ran onto the pitch with 12 minutes gone and
scampered around the grass unchallenged until he was cornered by a
couple of stewards off the pitch by the advertising boards. It
was a brief respite in an undistinguished first half that waited
until 30 minutes before there was a shot on target, as Kranjcar hit
a low effort at Reina, who needed two goes to grab hold of the
ball.

Bellamy flashed a shot low
past the post and Johnson's cross missed out everyone in the middle
and would have sneaked it low at the far post had Brad Friedel not
scooped the ball away before Spearing was set up for a shot from
just outside the box that swerved away from goal and missed by a
couple of feet. But there were a few moments when Liverpool's
desperation to get back to the top four showed, with Skrtel barging
Bale into the advertising boards off the pitch and Adam charging
around leaving his foot in unnecessarily. Bale almost
manufactured a bizarre goal with a drag back from near the penalty
area when the ball was played in behind him, but it flew up nicely
for Reina to claim and in injury time, Johnson had a shot when it
opened up in front of him, but Friedel saved with his legs and as
soon as that had happened the ref blew up for half time. I
don't remember anything in the rules about playing on until an
attack is over.

Throughout the first half,
Andy Carroll had been moaning at the ref, about anything and
everything, with Gerrard and Bellamy also bending the ref's ear more
than they were doing the ball. The pressure on them to win at
home is massive and at the moment, they are not up to that task,
with seven home draws in the league before tonight's match.

As mentioned in the preview,
their failure to score is what is costing them and although there
weren't a host of chance sin this match, they failed to beat the
Tottenham defence. The second half started in fractious
fashion, with Gerrard having a shot blocked by Ledley King (and
Spurs did that particularly well tonight, with Dawson and Parker the
prime exponents). Then Bale was running through as Skrtel
shaped to clatter him, so Gareth moved to avoid the contact and went
down without being touched. Agger got involved and started
abusing Bale, who got up and reacted, getting a yellow card which
could have been for simulation or retaliation.

Having been wound up, when
the ball did drop for Bale in the area, he snatched at the shot and
put it well wide. At the other end, Friedel pushed away a shot
by Kelly and from the corner, Agger didn't react when the ball came
over a head and his header went weakly wide. Then, with
the chants of "You know what you are" ringing in the chilly night
air, Luis Suarez made his entrance after a suspension for racial
abuse against Patrick Evra. Spurs fans were not disappointed
as he proved to be the epitome of what is wrong with Liverpool.

One of his first actions was
to have a shot that was blocked, then when the ball went up in the
air in a subsequent attack, he nudged Scott Parker and then looked
to see where he was before volleying him in the stomach. it
looked an intentional action and while the referee saw enough of it
to book the player, he could not have noticed the glance to locate
Parker and then make it look like an "accident". It could
easily have been red and if not for that, a later shot was blocked
by King in the area, the ball bounced back to be brought down by
Suarez's arm and then he claimed a penalty against the Spurs skipper
for handball. When a player with talent resorts to this level
of gamesmanship, it is a stain on his character and on his manager,
who fails to mention it or fails to try and erase it from his game.
You tend to think that he will get his comeuppance again in the near
future (maybe when they play Man U next week).

Spurs brought on Louis Saha
for his debut and he ran about a bit, while Bale ran through
finishing his break with a shot that went wide. But the
pressure was building on the Tottenham defence, with the ball
constantly coming straight back at them, without anyone to hold it
up away from their own 18 yard box. Andy Carroll should have
scored when a ball from the right was pulled back to him and he
controlled the ball before hammering it way over.

On another rare break, Bale
was away if he could have controlled the ball, but with his back to
the Liverpool goal (albeit 35 yards out), he was clattered by Skrtel,
who had been looking for some sort of sick revenge for getting sent
off at the Lane earlier this season and might have repeated the
feat, as he used excessive force in his tackle, following through on
Bale's calf. Instead he only saw yellow. In fact, five
minutes from the end, it looked like Gareth might win it against the
run of play, when Kranjcar played a through ball from inside his own
half that saw Bale lose Johnson and race through for a one on one
with Reina. Usually, you would have backed Bale, but he didn't
hit his shot with a great contact and he aimed it through the
keeper's legs, but he managed to block the ball and the chance had
gone.

Liverpool then had a late
chance from a free-kick, when Suarez got a head on it five
yards out, but his header went straight into Brad's arms. A
yard either side and he might have had more trouble claiming the
ball.

A draw did not suit either
side, but in the end, they both had to settle for a point and
perhaps Tottenham were more grateful than the home side, who must
have thought they should have won. It preserves our buffer
between us and Chelsea and while we slip further behind City, we
stay in touch with United (just).

It is an important month for
the club and the fixtures to come are testing ones, especially with
injuries and the youthful bench we had on show tonight.
Hopefully, we can get a good return from the next four games to keep
us in the chase.